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Luba Orgonasova's home town of Bratislava has long been one of the major regional musical centers of Central Europe. She attended the Conservatory and the Music Academy of the city, where she studied piano and voice.

She began her singing career at Bratislava's opera house, then was invited to sing as a guest at the Hagen Opera House in 1984. Following that appearance, she received a contract as a member of that company as its First Lyric Soprano, remaining there to the end of the 1988 season. While there she sang in many leading parts, including two for which she would become famous, Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata and Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. She sang Pamina at the Vienna State Opera and recorded it in 1989.

Maestro Herbert von Karajan heard her sing and invited her to appear in the 1990 Salzburg Easter Festival and the summer Salzburg Festival in 1990, where she sang Marzelline in Beethoven's Fidelio. Later in that season she sang Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Seraglio in Paris.

Since then she has sung on all the major operatic stages of the world, and in concert performance with many of the great orchestras. Among her signature roles is that of Eurydice in Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice.

Bernarda Fink had considerable local success in Argentina before beginning to achieve international attention as a mezzo-soprano in the late 1990s.

She was born to a Slovenian family in Buenos Aires. The family had musical talent: Two younger siblings--Marko (who has sung Arturo in Lucia di Lamermoor) and Veronika (at the turn of the millenium beginning her career at the opera in Ljubljana)--are also singers.

Bernarda began musical and vocal studies at the Instituto Superior de Arte, a school associated with the Teatro Colón, South America's leading opera house, where she frequently appeared. Other Argentine venues where she sang during these formative years were the Festivales Musicales de Buenos Aires.

In 1985 she won the country's Nuevas Voces Liricas (New Lyrical Voices) Competition, leading to her moving to Europe where she began a notable concert career. She has appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the French Radio Philharmonic, the French National Orchestra, the Orchestra of Suisse Romande, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New Japan Philharmonic. She also sings with chamber and original instrument groups such as I Solisti Veneti, the English Baroque Soloists, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

She is also an active recital singer, including an appearance at the New York Festival of Song in Carnegie Hall.

She established her operatic career with the Grand Théâtre of Geneva. While living in that city she married Valentin Inzko, a Slovenian diplomat. (She is, therefore, sometimes booked as Bernarda Fink-Inzko). She jokes that between his diplomatic postings and her world-wide touring the couple have a "Gypsy existence."

Other operatic appearances have included the Czech National Opera, operas of Montpellier and Innbruck, Barcelona, and the Netherlands Opera. Her repertory includes Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria, Humperdink's Hansel und Gretel, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Rossini's La Cenerentola, Mozart's Così fan tutte and other operas. Among her concert works are Wagner's Wesendonk Lieder, Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été, Dvorák's Biblical Songs, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Tenor Christoph Prégardien is best known for his performance of lieder, opera, and oratorio. He has won several awards for his recordings. He has also established himself as a conductor and educator.

Prégardien was born in Limburg an der Lahn, Germany, on January 18, 1956. He began his musical education at the Limburg Cathedral Choir School. He went on to study at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule with Martin Gründeler, and later with Carla Castellani in Milan, Karlheinz Jarius in Frankfurt, and Alois Treml in Stuttgart.

He has built up a major reputation as a concert artist, performing the oratorios and passions of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. Prégardien's repertoire also encompasses the works of 17th century composers Monteverdi, Schütz, and Purcell, and 20th century composers Britten, Stravinsky, Killmayer, and Rihm. Among the conductors he has performed and recorded with are Brüggen, Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Herreweghe, Hogwood, Jacobs, Koopman, Kuijken, Leonhardt, and Rilling. As an operatic tenor, Prégardien has given performances in many major venues, among them London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Montpellier, and Tokyo. His roles have included such characters as Monteverdi's Ulisse, Mozart's Tamino and Don Ottavio, and Rossini's Count Almaviva.

Prégardien's special love is lieder, which he studied at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule in classes with Hartmut Höll. After the great success of his first lieder recordings, Prégardien embarked on a major recording career. His outstanding achievements as a lieder singer have been acknowledged with numerous awards, such as the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Edison Award, Diapason D'or de l'année, and the Cannes Classical Award, among others.

Since 2012, Prégardien has worked as a conductor with Le Concert Lorrain, the Nederlands Kammerkoor, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, and Collegium Vocale Gent. He taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Zurich, the Academy of Music in Cologne, and has given master classes throughout the world.

Prégardien and Andreas Staier performed together internationally beginning in 1991, and in 1997, they signed an exclusive contract with Teldec. Their debut album for the label, Schubert's Winterreise, won numerous awards as well as being chosen for the German Record Critics' Quarterly List. His other favorite piano partner is Michael Gees, with whom he released Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin in 2008. Other releases by Prégardien have included an album of songs by Beethoven and his contemporaries Nikolaus von Krufft and Franz Lachner, Brahms' Die schöne Magelone, a recording of duets with his son Julian in 2014, and an album of Schumann and Wagner lieder in 2019. ~ Rovi Staff

Britain's Monteverdi Choir had roots in the early development of the historical-performance movement in Britain but has broadened its repertory and become recognized as one of the world's premier choral groups. The choir has continued to emphasize Baroque music, however, mounting and recording an epochal Bach Cantata Pilgrimage that has made up a large proportion of its catalog after the year 2000. Composers whose music has been recorded by the Monteverdi Choir include Mendelssohn and Bruckner. In 2023, the choir, with longtime conductor John Eliot Gardiner at the helm, released a live recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248; the following year, Gardiner resigned as artistic director.

The Monteverdi Choir is a group of unusually long standing within the early music movement. It was founded in 1964 by John Eliot Gardiner, who at the time was a Cambridge University undergraduate. He brought the choir together for a performance of Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 at Cambridge, hoping to infuse the score with something of its original warmth and to avoid the rather academic performances that were the norm in British early music circles at the time. The choir was immediately successful and continued to use the name Monteverdi Choir even though that composer constituted only a small part of its repertory. The Monteverdi Choir made its London debut under Gardiner in 1966 at Wigmore Hall, and it remained integral to Gardiner's work as he founded new instrumental ensembles: the English Baroque Soloists and later the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, which applied historical-performance principles to music after the Baroque period. In 1986, the choir made an early digital recording of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, for the Archiv Produktion label, with which it was associated for the first part of its career.

The choir soon became known beyond Britain and began to tour with Gardiner, reprising the Monteverdi Vespers in 1989 at St. Mark's in Venice, replicating the original performance environment of the work. The choir traveled to New York in 1996 for the inaugural Lincoln Center Festival, where it performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, and Missa Solemnis, Op. 123, with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. The choir explored 19th century music with that group, notably the mostly neglected choral music of Schumann. In the '90s, the Monteverdi Choir recorded both of Haydn's major oratorios. However, its main focus was Bach, who makes up a substantial proportion of the group's dozens of recordings on the Philips label and later on Gardiner's own label SDG, referring to the small "Soli Deo Gloria" ("Only to God's Glory") image Bach affixed to many of his compositions. In 2000, Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir undertook a Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, a monumental undertaking in which almost all of Bach's cantatas were performed over the course of the year in some churches associated with Bach's career. Most of the cantatas were recorded and were released during the 2000s and 2010s in sumptuously illustrated editions featuring Gardiner's reflections on the meanings of the individual works.

The Monteverdi Choir has also performed and recorded the music of many other composers, including Schütz, Handel, Mozart, and Schubert, and a 50th anniversary concert at Cambridge in 2014 repeated the choir's original Monteverdi program there. The choir began as an unusually progressive ensemble, but by that time, its sound was somewhat conservative; Gardiner avoided the very small choral groupings that characterize many modern Baroque performances. The Monteverdi Choir has remained extremely popular, however, especially in Britain. Notable recordings of the 2010s included one of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232 (2015), Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 52 ("Lobgesang"), with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gardiner, and Love Is Come Again (2019), featuring music for an Easter play mounted at Gardiner's family home. That was a recording of a type the Monteverdi Choir had rarely essayed before, and it spoke to the venerable choir's continuing vitality. The choir slowed its production during the COVID-19 pandemic but returned in 2022 on the Deutsche Grammophon label with a live recording of Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245, and the following year saw the release of a recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248. Both those performances were conducted by Gardiner, who resigned as artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir in July of 2024 after reports that he was physically abusive toward a performer. The Monteverdi Choir continued to perform independently of Gardiner. ~ James Manheim

Since its inception in 1842, the Wiener Philharmoniker (or Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in English) has represented the best in the Central European orchestral tradition. Before the Wiener Philharmoniker was founded, there was no permanent, professional orchestra to be found outside the opera halls in the city of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. The Wiener Philharmoniker is one of the most traditional orchestras in the world today, with much-beloved traditions, like the annual New Year's concerts of waltzes by the Strauss family.

In 1833, Franz Lachner, conductor at the Hofoper, had formed a musicians' association from the ranks of the opera orchestras to play symphonic music, but this was a temporary endeavor. Nine years later, a group of music critics and other interested parties persuaded Otto Nicolai, principal conductor of the Kärntertortheater, to conduct the first Wiener Philharmoniker concert at the Grosser Redoutensaal (Great Ballroom) on March 28, 1842. The group was founded as the first completely self-governing orchestra, and it has remained so ever since. Although concerts were irregular until 1860, the orchestra quickly built up a reputation. From 1860 to 1875, Otto Dessoff was the permanent conductor, bringing the music of Brahms, Wagner, and Liszt into the concert halls. Hans Richter succeeded Dessoff and conducted the orchestra until 1898, introducing Bruckner and Dvorák to Viennese audiences. Both of these conductors played major roles in establishing the Wiener Philharmoniker as one of the finest orchestras in the world. During this time, the Wiener Philharmoniker had numerous premieres of now-classic works such as Brahms' Second Symphony and Bruckner's Eighth; sometimes, as in the case of Bruckner's Third, the premiere was conducted by the composer himself. The great Gustav Mahler conducted from 1898 to 1901, but his tenure was marked by dissension within the orchestra.

The longest-term conductor of the post-Mahler era was Felix Weingartner, from 1908 to 1927. He was beloved by the orchestra for his measured, classical style and, in particular, for his Beethoven interpretations. From 1933 to 1938, the revered conductors Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler shared the subscription concerts; after Hitler's annexation of Austria in 1938, the Nazi Party dissolved the orchestra, but the decision was reversed after Furtwängler intervened. The Wiener Philharmoniker led an uneasy life during the war but afterward reclaimed its place in the world's orchestral pantheon. The list of conductors who have led Wiener Philharmoniker subscription concerts reads like an honor roll of maestros; Richard Strauss, Arturo Toscanini, Herbert von Karajan, and Leonard Bernstein have each taken turns at the podium.

The Wiener Philharmoniker has held an annual New Year's Day Concert of Strauss family works, particularly those of Johann II, since 1941 when Clemens Krauss began the tradition; the first of these concerts was actually held on New Year's Eve in 1939, after which the concert has occurred on New Year's Day. Riccardo Muti led the orchestra in its 80th New Year's concert in 2021, marking his sixth appearance in the series. While some of its traditions are revered, others have come under fire in recent years. Though the Wiener Philharmoniker premiered a lot of music in its early days, it now prefers to play mostly music written before 1900, which created a controversy at the Salzburg Festival during the 1990s. The orchestra also refused until 1997 to accept a female musician as a full member, threatening to disband rather than cave in to political pressure. The first woman member of the Wiener Philharmoniker was harpist Anna Lelkes, who was granted full membership after 26 years of service. Simone Young was the first woman to conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker in 2005, and in 2008, Albena Danailova became the orchestra's first female concertmaster. Historically, the Wiener Philharmoniker has opposed hiring musicians who are not Central European in order to preserve what is perceived as a unique quality of sound. While the orchestra's policies may be controversial, it cannot be disputed that the Wiener Philharmoniker is one of the world's finest orchestras, performing with exceptional finesse and clarity, with a beautifully blended woodwind and brass sound that meshes perfectly with its subtle, lush strings.

The Wiener Philharmoniker is celebrated on 24-carat gold bullion coins issued by the Austrian Mint. In 2006, the design of the coinage was featured by Austrian Airlines on its airplanes to promote both the orchestra and the sale of the coins, which are among the most popular with investors. ~ Andrew Lindemann Malone

Conductor John Eliot Gardiner is a leading figure in the historical performance movement, having founded the Monteverdi Choir for performances of Baroque music and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, devoted to music of the 19th century. He is especially noted for performances and recordings of Bach's choral music, and his label, Soli Deo Gloria ("To the Glory of God Only"), takes its name from the small S.D.G. signature Bach affixed to many of his works.

Gardiner was born on April 20, 1943, in the village of Fontmell Magna in England's Dorset County. It is worth notice that for the first part of his musical education, he was largely self-taught: he sang in a village church choir and played the violin. At 15, he took up conducting, and while he was studying history, Arabic, and medieval Spanish at Cambridge, he also began conducting choirs there. He led choirs from Oxford and Cambridge on a Middle Eastern tour while still an undergraduate, and in 1964, he conducted a performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, a work little known at the time. Out of this performance grew the Monteverdi Choir, his primary performing ensemble. Gardiner studied musicology and conducting with Thurston Dart and Nadia Boulanger in the mid-'60s, which was his only period of formal musical study. In 1968, he founded a Monteverdi Orchestra to go with the choir; in the '70s, the group began to use Baroque instruments and was renamed the English Baroque Soloists. With this group and the Monteverdi Choir, Gardiner has made recordings numbering in the hundreds. Mostly during the first part of his career, he also worked with conventional symphony orchestras. His U.S. debut came in 1979 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and in the '80s and early '90s, he was music director of the CBC Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Opera de Lyon Orchestra, and the North German Radio Orchestra (now the NDR Elbphilharmonie). In 1990, as understanding of the historical instruments used in the music of Beethoven and subsequent composers was just developing, he founded the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, leading it on tour in 1993 with a then recently rediscovered Messe solennelle of Berlioz.

One of Gardiner's most celebrated accomplishments was his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage of 2000, with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists. The group toured for 52 weeks, performing all of Bach's cantatas at their appropriate times in the liturgical year, often in churches with relevance in Bach's own career. The performances were recorded and issued in lavish packaging on Soli Deo Gloria, with essays by Gardiner delving into the meaning of each work. These essays led Gardiner to publish a book, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven (2013). Gardiner has also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, and other labels. His Schumann symphony recordings with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique are credited with introducing a trend toward smaller forces in those works. Another major tour came in Spain in 2004, as Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir retraced the medieval Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route and sang medieval Spanish repertory. Gardiner has also appeared as a guest conductor with major symphony orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Cleveland Orchestra. His recording career has not slackened in the least in his senior citizen years, as he has often released a half-dozen recordings per year or more. In 2019, he and the Monteverdi Choir released Love is come again, featuring music from the Springhead Easter Play, a mime event staged annually at Gardiner's family home and originally directed by his mother. He was not slowed much in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic, for he already had material in the hopper, including a modern-instrument recording of a pair of Schumann symphonies with the London Symphony Orchestra. He returned in 2022 with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in a new recording for the Deutsche Grammophon label of Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245. Gardiner's many awards include designation as Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France in 2011. ~ James Manheim